History
Attgeno team members have been prime contributors to the only two clinical applications originating from the discovery of nitric oxide in 1987. The late Professor Lars E Gustafsson and assistant Professor Magnus Persson discovered exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) and founded the company Aerocrine that developed and commercialized a diagnostic instrument (NIOX®) to monitor asthma treatment. The Swedish diagnostic company Aerocrine was acquired by Circassia for $214 million in June 2015.
The Head of Attgeno’s scientific advisory board, Professor Claes Frostell, was together with the late MSU Professor Warren Zapol instrumental in the development of iNO as a treatment for premature infants with respiratory insufficiency. The FDA approved inhalation gas INOmax® for the treatment of HRF in term and near-term (more than 34 weeks) newborns in 1993. In 2003, Warren and Claes received the Inventor of the Year award from the Intellectual Property Owners Association.
Attgeno’s Board Directors Magnus Persson and Elisabet Lindberg contributed to the building of Actelion Ltd, a EUR multibillion company with blockbuster drugs for the treatment of CPH. The acquisition of Actelion by Johnson & Johnson for a purchase price of approximately $30 billion in cash was announced in June 2017.
Attgeno was founded in Stockholm 2005. The company focused on research from the outset until 2015. Under new management (Per Agvald and Christofer Adding), the company started pre-clinical and clinical activities 2015. Some of the key development milestones in 2015–2023 are described below:
2015 Grants received for a total SEK 1 million from Karolinska Innovation and Novo Foundation
2015 Start of development of new method for synthesis of Supernitro
2017 Initiation of toxicological safety programme
2018 First patent application submitted related to the new synthesis method
2018 New share issue of SEK 30 million
2018 CDMOs contracted to facilitate further Supernitro development
2018 Supernitro Platform project is granted SEK 5 million from SweLife/Vinnova (Swedish government fund) to support Phase I study
2019 First technical batch of Supernitro that meets all specified criteria
2019 Patent application submitted for the new method for production of Supernitro
2020 Attgeno granted SEK 5 million Vinnova to support Phase IIA study of ICU treated Covid-19 patients with APH
2020 First GMP batch of Supernitro produced
2021 In vitro studies of Supernitro show drug is able to inhibit SARS-CoV2 virus and multiresistant malaria
2021 Submission of two more patent applications related to new administration routes and antimicrobial use of Supernitro
2021 Phase I – first-in-human study started
2021 Phase IIA study of Supernitro started for ICU treated Covid-19 patients with APH
2022 Improved analytical methods for quality control of Supernitro developed
2022 Discussions initiated with several large chemical manufacturing companies to secure future production to market
2022 Phase I – first-in-human study completed
2022 Phase IIa aPH in cardiac surgery patients started
2023 Pre-IND meeting with FDA performed
2023 Updated production of Supernitro suitable for Phase III and market was initiated